03 March 2002

02 March 2002

Envisat altitude raised by 3.5 km, to let it drift until it reaches
its planned position 30 minutes ahead ERS-2. The drift phase will
take 33 days to complete, after which Envisat altitude will be
lowered again.

28 February 2002

28 February 2002

18 October 2000

The solar array has been redeployed at Fokker Space, to verify its
integrity after the satellite mechanical tests of this Summer To
see the Quicktime movies click here for the large version (2.20mb),
or here for the small version (1.08mb)

17 October 2000

The ASAR Antenna has been deployed at Estec, under the control of
the satellite Service Module. To see the Quicktime movies click
here for the large version (2.20mb), or here for the small version
(1.08mb)

01 September 2000

Each Payload Data Segment (PDS) facility has been upgraded by the
PDS prime and subcontractors to version 3, making them compatible
with the on board Solid State recorder, the latest satellite to
Ground interface, and the latest version of computer platform
hardware and operating system.

20 August 2000

Over the last two weeks the Envisat flight model went successfully
through all mechanical vibration tests at ESTEC. The test results
have convinced Arianespace that Envisat is now qualified to the
Ariane 5 launch environment. The successful completion of these
tests, during the end of August, was not only a milestone for the
Envisat project, but also for the large hydraulic shaker Hydra, as
Envisat was its first customer. Hydra is the biggest satellite
shaker in Europe and the newest facility facility at ESA's test
centre at ESTEC.

31 July 2000

During the end of July, acoustic testing of the Envisat spacecraft
took place in ESA's Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) at
ESTEC. The flight model of Envisat underwent a test simulating the
acoustic noise to be encountered during an Ariane 5 launch. This
test, concluded 8th August, confirmed the satellite's capability to
withstand the corresponding noise levels without problems.

05 April 2000

The first results of the THESEO 2000/SOLVE project show that ozone
losses of over 60% have occurred in the Arctic stratosphere near
18km altitude during one of the coldest stratospheric winters on
record. GOME measurements over the Arctic support investigations on
the recovery of the ozone layer.